22-year-old secondary school dropout, Chinedu Iroko, who specialised in defrauding rich widows and divorcees through social media, has been arrested my the Victoria Island Police Station, after he defrauded a woman who reported to the police.

The police went on Facebook to become friends with Iroko. One of them acted as a widow and started chatting with Iroko until it got to the stage where he asked for money. He was asked to come for the money, when he got to the venue, he walked into the waiting arms of policemen.

During investigation, police discovered that Iroko goes by many names, including Frank, Odinaka, Fine boy and Stanley. The police said: “The suspect is a secondary school dropout, but he’s very skilled in the use of computer. He frequents Facebook and dating sites.

His modus operandi is to go on these social media sites where he takes on the identity of a wealthy Igbo widower living in the U.S.” Iroko said: “The women I target are usually divorcees and widows; these women are desperate to have companions. I target Igbo women so that I can communicate with them in Igbo. I’m can’t speak English language fluently.”

According to the police, the suspect would post pictures on Facebook and dating sites, claiming to be searching for a wife. He would go further to post pictures of expensive cars, houses, just to get attention of wealthy divorcees, and widows. The suspect had obtained over N5m from his victims.

Speaking further, Iroko said: “These women end up parting with the money, hoping that I would repay them. But after collecting the money, I block their phone numbers from calling me. I don’t feel I have done anything wrong because I need money to survive”